the guest of my uncle much longer than I intended,
indeed right through the shooting season, in order to watch the
Leithcourts, yet as far as we could judge they were extremely well-bred
people and very hospitable.

We exchanged a good many visits and dinners, and while my uncle several
times invited Leithcourt and his friends to his shoot with _al fresco_
luncheon, which the ladies joined, the tenant of Rannoch always invited
us back in return.

Thus I gained many opportunities of talking with Muriel, and of watching
her closely. I had the reputation of being a confirmed bachelor, and on
account of that it seemed that she was in no way averse to my
companionship. She could handle a rook-rifle as well as any woman, and
was really a very fair shot. Therefore we often found ourselves alone
tramping across the wide open moorland, or along those delightful glens
of the Nithsdale, glorious in the autumn tints of their luxurious
foliage.

Her father, on the other hand, seemed to view me with considerable
suspicion, and I could easily discern that I was only asked to Rannoch
because it was impossible to invite my uncle without including myself.

Leithcourt, who perhaps thought I was courting his daughter, was ever
endeavoring to avoid me, and would never allow me to walk with him
alone. Why? I wondered. Did he fear me? Had Woodroffe told him of our
strange encounter in Leghorn?

His pronounced antipathy towards me caused me to watch him
surreptitiously, and more closely than perhaps I should otherwise have
done. He was a man of gloomy mood, and often he would leave his guests
and take walks alone, musing and brooding. On several occasions I
followed him in secret, and found to my surprise that although he made
long detours in various directions, yet he always arrived at the same
spot at the same hour--five o'clock.

The place where he halted was on the edge of a dark wood on the brow of
a hill about three miles from Rannoch--a good place to get woodpigeon,
as they came to roost. It was fully two miles across the hills from the
high road to Moniaive, and from the break the gray wall where he was in
the habit of sitting to rest and smoke, there stretched the beautiful
panorama of Loch Urr and the heatherclad hills beyond.

Leithcourt never went direct to the place, but always so timed his walks
that he arrived just at five, and remained there smoking cigarettes
until half-past, as though awaiting the arrival of some pers